Oscar Blitz 2026 – Original Song

If you’ve followed the Blitz over the years, you know this is NOT my favorite category. I love music, and I love how music is used in film, whether it’s a full-blown production number, a nice diegetic catalog track, or even occasionally a thematically appropriate coda during the credits. Also, as I’ve never been successfully able to write a song myself despite years of trying, my hat is off to anyone with the skill to do what I cannot.

However, this category has become tainted over the last few years, when it should have only gotten better. After some cynical exercises in crowding the field with tacked-on tracks to musical adaptations and overloading sometimes three songs from the same movie just to pad it out to five nominees (contrasted by having only two not so long ago), the Academy changed the rules and issued content guidelines in an effort to make the process more transparent and to honor songs that are actually relevant to the associated movie. A limit of two songs per film was issued (three can make the shortlist), credit roll tracks were limited to only the first, and a strong suggestion was made (though not enforceable as a rule because you can’t police interpretation and thought) to have members of the Music Branch consider submitted songs within the context of the film and vote accordingly.

In theory, these were positive changes, but in practice, there’s been a decided drop in the quality of the nominees. Part of this is due to a further shift in favor of radio-friendly pop songs (a trend that hit its nadir in the 90s with Disney and Phil Collins), and a big chunk is the blatant chicanery of a voting bloc that reserves a space for Diane Warren every year. She’s on her 17th nomination this time around, her ninth in a row, and 11th in the past 12 years. I’m not saying she’s a bad writer. She’s got millions of dollars and hundreds of hits to her name. I even sincerely enjoy some of them, and think some of her nominations were well and truly earned. I can’t argue against her talent without being disingenuous. But the mathematical odds of her writing a song for a movie every year, and it legitimately being one of the five best each time, are astronomical, and when you see other awards bodies leave her off, only for her to show up on the Oscar list every single time, it reeks of shenanigans. It’s gotten to the point where productions openly admit that they commission her just so they can get nominated, regardless of the quality of the film. Hell, we’ve even seen a film literally stitched together out of a series of shorts just to get that undeserved nod.

Regardless of your opinions of her music, that’s just objectively unfair. It’s unfair to the numerous other writers and artists in the competition, knowing that they’re vying for one of only four spots. It’s unfair to the rest of the Academy membership who have to pretend that this is all above board, knowing that they’ll never vote for her in large enough numbers for her to finally win (that’s why she was given a “please go away now” honorary Oscar four years ago). And yes, it’s unfair to movie fans and completists like myself who have to set aside extra time and money to humor this continued exercise in futility.

And again, it’s not like I hate her songs. Some of them are great. When I was in high school, I wanted to have our choir perform “Music of My Heart” as a graduation tribute to our director. “Til it Happens to You” was heartfelt and raw. “Stand Up for Something” was a solid call to action and activism. The problem is the obvious dealmaking and gladhanding, especially as the Academy writ large is trying to fight against the perception that the Oscars are just a group of out-of-touch elites congratulating themselves. It’s so frustrating because it’s an easily identifiable problem with an easy solution. Will Smith got a 10-year ban for slapping Chris Rock ON THE NIGHT HE WON THE OSCAR! How hard is it to impose a similar punishment to send a message that you can’t rig the nominations?

Anyway, rant over, time to give each track the fair shake I pride myself on. Yes, even Warren.

This year’s nominees for Original Song are…

“Dear Me” from Diane Warren: Relentless – Music and Lyrics by Diane Warren

As her treacly ballads go, “Dear Me” isn’t the worst of Warren’s output. It has a decent message about perseverance, the melody is well-orchestrated, and Kesha sings it quite admirably. Her vocals aren’t to the levels she pulled off in “Praying,” but it’s far from the club bullshit or auto-tuned sing-talk that made her famous. In a vacuum, this is an okay song.

But we’re not judging in a vacuum. We’re meant to judge within context, and that’s where it falls apart. In her self-indulgent documentary (which doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page, it made so little of an impact on the public), Diane Warren strums a few times and hums some lyrics that are written on the screen in animated cursive font, before eventually bringing Kesha in to record in the studio and play the song over the credits. It’s a departure from her normal M.O., which is a credits-only tune commissioned after the film’s already been made. But I can’t even give props for that, because the movie is just self-aggrandizing tripe about how awesome she is, how she wrote all the songs you love, and how unfair it is that she hasn’t won an Oscar yet. Seriously, over 15 minutes are devoted to her awards campaigning. Once you understand that, reassuring lines about how troubles will pass and everything will be okay ring extremely hollow.

On a meta level, this is yet another entry that calls into question the notion of nominating her for “Original” Song. Musically, the song is in the same key as several of her other nominated tracks. The lyrics about overcoming obstacles are just rephrases of the same lines from the likes of “Grateful,” “Applause,” “I’m Standing with You,” “The Journey,” and “I’ll Fight.” What exactly about this song is original? Answer – nothing.

Again, this isn’t a bad song in isolation. But when you put it against every other nominee and keep in mind the straight up cheating in this process, you can see that it has no business being here.

“Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters – Music and Lyrics by Ejae, Mark Sonnenblick, 24, Ido, and Teddy Park

I make no secret that I’m not a fan of KPop Demon Hunters, or K-Pop in general. It’s just not for me. I recognize where people love it, and I can’t ignore or deny the cultural impact it’s had over the last year. This song in particular, the empowerment anthem for protagonist Rumi, is even being used as the official theme song for NBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics going on right now.

And to be fair, it’s not half bad. It makes sense on a contextual level, both directly as a reference to the Golden Honmoon the girls are trying to summon, and indirectly as a statement of self-worth for Rumi as she accepts who she is. While I’m not nearly as into the genre as others, musically and lyrically “Golden” is far less painful to listen to than “Takedown” or “Soda Pop.” If this is your power track, I totally get it.

Honestly, despite my objections to the film overall, I really enjoyed this the first time I heard it…

… when it was called “Let it Go.”

“I Lied to You” from Sinners – Music and Lyrics by Raphael Saadiq and Ludwig Göransson

In a proper contest, every nominee would be like “I Lied to You” (and “Golden”), in that it’s an active element of the film’s story. The soundtrack to the best scene of the film – and really the best scene of all 2025 cinema – “I Lied to You” is a soaring number that builds in intensity from a purely musical perspective, before expanding into the thesis statement of collective culture that the movie celebrates.

Beginning with a simple blues riff that you’d hear in any jazz club, the song initially sounds like any other, distinguished by Miles Caton’s insane bass vocals, which had been teased multiple times before that point. Honestly, if it were just that, I’d have enjoyed it, but I wouldn’t consider it worthy of any further thought.

But then Saadiq and Göransson kick things into overdrive, infusing elements from all kinds of different influences, tracing a timeline of African music (with indigenous and Asian features as well) along its past, present, and future. Funk guitars, hip-hop beats, drums, record scratches, it all comes together in an alchemical blend represented on the screen by the dancers and characters weaving their way in and out of the scene, from witch doctors to DJs. The vocals fade and become a haunting specter of what is, what was, and what can be, turning a relatively simple melody into something next-level.

This is what we’re supposed to honor. Without this song, and this scene, the stakes of the film aren’t properly conveyed. We need this moment to understand exactly what Remmick is trying to take by violent force. Without “I Lied to You,” Sinners is just a story about racist vampires, not a parable about the dangers of assimilation and the need to preserve cultural history.

“Sweet Dreams of Joy” from Viva Verdi! – Music and Lyrics by Nicholas Pike

When you look at Nicholas Pike’s filmography, you honestly wonder how he could have come up with a song as beautiful as “Sweet Dreams of Joy.” While most of his modern work is in television, he’s been active in films since the 1980s, composing scores for cheesy B-movie horror entries like Critters 2 and Sleepwalkers, as well as disposable kids movies like Blank Check and Star Kid. Yet here he is, delivering a serious, etude-style aria as the ending note for a documentary that lionizes the elder statesmen of classical music and opera.

The melody is powerful, yet mostly calm. It reminded me of “Simple Song #3,” which was from another film about reflection in the autumn years, Youth. Teased a couple of times during the body of the film, the track is given full voice over the credits as we salute the subjects who passed away during production. Unlike “Dear Me,” however, the previews are for a more noble cause than a single celebrity’s ego. Part of the premise of Casa Verdi, the retirement home for musicians that’s the basis for the movie, is that the residents foster the talents of young music students, some of whom also board there. Like all art, it needs to be shared and passed on from generation to generation, so we literally see this process play out, with a former diva performing and teaching it to the group.

That’s how you leave a lasting impression, not to mention a musical legacy. I know/care about opera less than I do pop music, but I can see the clear intent and value in what’s being presented here. Passion shows through even in the brief moments of seeing someone sing it on camera, so that when we hit the reprise over the credits, we’ve truly experienced the journey summed up by this final movement.

Also, give Pike some love. He somehow has fewer YouTube subscribers than me!

“Train Dreams” from Train Dreams – Music by Nick Cave and Bryce Dessner; Lyrics by Cave

One of the things I learned from Diane Warren’s movie is that her habit of mostly only writing songs for the credits does have a personal and creative reason behind it. As she puts it, she feels like a good song is meant to sum up the entire film, a period at the end of the cinematic sentence. I don’t agree with that philosophy, as it tacitly dismisses every other song within a non-musical movie, but at least there’s method to the crassness.

When it comes to the title track from Train Dreams, we get further justification. When I saw the film at AFI Fest, it was the final cut ready for theatrical and Netflix release. During the Q&A with the stars and director Clint Bentley afterward, Bentley mentioned that we in the audience were the first to see the “complete” film, including the Nick Cave song. When they were making the movie, they wanted to have an original song, either to play in the body of the story or over the credits, but they didn’t have the budget to commission one. Score composer Dessner even had Cave in mind as they brainstormed. They just couldn’t afford it at the time. So when the film screened at Sundance last year, the credits were largely silent. When Netflix picked it up for distribution, part of the deal included money to create the song, and it was put over the credits rather than doing a costly reshoot to create a specific scene for it. That makes complete sense.

As for the song itself, my god is it haunting. The simple piano and strings belie the darkness of Cave’s lyrics, sung in his uniquely deep voice like a mournful Robbie Robertson. The images described echo the moods of several scenes in the movie, and some are direct references to certain events in the narrative, all delivered with a straightforward vocabulary that reflects the lack of eloquence in Joel Edgerton’s Robert Granier. It’s incredibly poetic while acting like it’s the exact opposite, an actual summation of what we’ve seen and experienced over the preceding 100 minutes. Not only is it beautiful, it’s incredibly in line with the tone poem presentation of the flick itself. I quibble with Warren a lot, but her stated process is realized in its best form on a completely separate nominee.

***

This is definitely a better class than what we had last year, even with the aforementioned bullshit of Diane Warren’s continued perpetual presence. None of these tracks is bad, but from where I sit, there’s a clear separation between the top two and the rest of the field. For the record, I didn’t listen to the entire shortlist of 15 songs, because I don’t want to hear them alone, but rather within their films, and I wasn’t going to watch Tron: Ares unless it actually got nominated. Of the tracks I did hear, I would have easily nominated “Salt Then Sour Then Sweet” or “Last Time (I Seen the Sun)” over a couple of the contenders here, and despite my distaste for pop, I’m still shocked that Shakira’s “Zoo” from Zootopia 2 wasn’t even shortlisted. It’s a legitimately fun, danceable tune.

Whatever, there are far more important things to deal with, not just with the Blitz, but in the world overall. Whether an entitled songwriter gets two minutes on the Dolby stage ultimately doesn’t matter.

My Rankings:
1) “I Lied to You”
2) “Train Dreams”
3) “Sweet Dreams of Joy”
4) “Golden”
5) “Dear Me”

Who do you think should win? Vote now in the poll below!

Up next, some writing that I’m actually qualified to talk about, because I know how to do it. It’s Adapted Screenplay!

Join the conversation in the comments below! What are the best songs you’ve experienced in movies? Are you a fan of the K-Pop genre? Do you think YOU deserve an Oscar every time you tell someone that they’ll be alright? Let me know! And remember, you can follow me on Twitter (fuck “X”) as well as Bluesky, subscribe to my YouTube channel for even more content, and check out the entire BTRP Media Network at btrpmedia.com!